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UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA. 






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THE PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL 
EDUCATION 



THE PROGRESS OF INDUS 
TRIAL EDUCATION : : : 

AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK ON 

WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30, 189I, AT THE^OPENING 

OF THE SIXTIETH EXHIBITION, AT THE EXHIBITION 

BUILDING, ON THIRD AVENUE, BETWEEN 

63RD AND 64TH STREETS 



BY 



/ 



GENERAL STEWART L. WOODFORD 



^ 



PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
BOARD OF MANAGERS 




^^tV OF CO/V 



NOV 12 1391 




NEW YORK 
1891 



h- 



COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY ROBERT RUTTER 






GIILISS BROTHERS 

4O0 & -WZ WEST 1 4TH STREET 

NEW YORK 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

1891 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

J. Trumbull Smith, President, 

Alexander Knox, . . . . . Vice-President, 

William Dean, Vice-President. 

James G. Powers, ..... Recording Secretary. 

Edward Schell, Treasurer. 

Thomas Rutter, Zachariah Dederick, 

William H. Gedney, James De Lamater, 

Chas. McK. Loeser, Walter Shriver, 

Chas. F. Allen, William A. Camp. 



MANAGERS OF THE SIXTIETH EXHIBITION 

John P, Chatillon, Chairman^ 
John S. Roake, Vice-Chairman^ 
Alex. M. Eagleson, Alexander Agar, 

George Whitefield, Daniel D. Earle, 

John H. Walker, Charles Gulden, 

Robert Rutter, Joseph T. Bedford, 

J. W. Fellows, Louis H. Laudy, 

Robert H. Shannon, Thomas J. Fitch, 

Chas. Wager Hull. 



Chas. Wager Hull, Ge?teral Superintendent. 
John W. Chambers, Secretary to Board of Managers. 



A CONDENSED HISTORY 

OF THE 

AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

AND ITS 

EXHIBITIONS 



A FEW enterprising citizens in the year 1828 met in a 
small room in Tammany Hall and organized the 
American Institute, and in 1829 a charter was granted 
by the Legislature of the State of New York, under the 
title of the "American Institute of the City of New York." 

Its objects are to encourage and promote domestic industry 
in this State, and the United States, in Agriculture, Commerce, 
Manufactures, and the Arts, and any improvements made therein^ 
by bestowing rewards and other benefits on those who shall make 
such improvements, or excel in any of the said branches. 

The first trustees and officers were William Few, President ; 
John Mason, First Vice-President ; Curtis Bolton, Second Vice-Pres- 
ident; Peter H. Schenck, Third Vice-President ; Enos Baldwin, 
Fourth Vice-President ; Anson Hayden, Fifth Vice-President, and 
John B. Yates and John A. Sidell, Secretaries. 

Mr. Thaddeus B. Wakeman was very prominent as one of 
its founders, in fact, might be styled ils father, and was its Cor- 
responding Secretary for eighteen years. He died in 1848. The 
Institute, to mark its appreciation of his services, erected a mon- 
ument to his memory in Greenwood Cemetery. 

The Hon. Henry Meigs was always active in the affairs of the 
Institute ; he was its Recording Secretary for seventeen years, and 
delivered a number of addresses at the Fairs. 

One of the principal means to accomplish its objects was the 
holding of Exhibitions, or as they were then called, Annual Fairs, 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 7 

in which Inventors, Manufacturers and others, could exhibit their 
various productions. 

The first Fair was held in 1828 in Masonic Hall, then stand- 
ing on Broadway, nearly opposite the New York Hospital, at the 
head of Pearl Street, and the Executive Committee having charge 
of the Fair was composed of Joseph Blunt, H. M. Solomon, 
Thomas S. Wells, Clarkson Crolius, James Benedict and Oliver D. 
Cook, Jr. This Exhibition was very successful, and after holding 
six Fairs there, it was found necessary to secure more ample ac- 
commodations. After examining various locations, NiNo's Garden 
was selected for its seventh Fair, notwithstanding great doubts 
were expressed as to its accessibility, it being deemed by many 
too far out of town. The Fair was, however, well patronized that 
year, and the Exhibitions became very popular until the place was 
consumed by fire in 1846. 

Castle Garden, on the Battery, then a fashionable resort forour 
citizens, was next selected, and the Fairs were held there every 
Fall until 1853. 

The Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations was opened in 
the Crystal Palace in 1854, on Reservoir Square, in Sixth Avenue, 
between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. After its close the 
American Institute procured it for holding its Exhibitions, which 
were held there in 1855, '56, '57 and '58, when it was destroyed 
by fire on the afternoon of October 5th, 1858, with all its contents. 
This was a severe loss to the American Institute, and was thought 
by some to be its death blow. Notwithstanding this disaster, the 
managers held an Exhibition the next year in Palace Garden, in 
Fourteenth Street, on the same lots on which now stands the 
Armory of the Twenty-second Regiment. The Institute, at great 
expense, made many improvements in that building, and held 
Fairs in it for several years. 

In 1863, the Exhibition was held in the Academy of Music, 
Fourteenth Street and Irving Place. 

In 1869, the Institute secured the large structure on Third 
Avenue, between Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Streets. This build- 
ing had been erected for a Skating Rink ; to this the Institute have 
added three large buildings, the whole covering forty city build- 
ing lots, extending from Third to Second Avenues. 

During the Exhibitions, addresses were delivered by prominent 
citizens of the United States, the anniversary address during the 



8 A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

third annual Fair by the Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston, Mass., 
was a masterpiece of oratory. It was afterwards published and 
passed through a second edition. 

John Mason succeeded Mr. Few as President, and James Tall- 
madge followed Mr. Mason, holding place until 1846, when Mah- 
lon Dickerson became President, holding office for two years, when 
Gen. Tallmadge was again elected, and served until '53, dying 
while in office. 

Among the Presidents of the Institute have been Robert L. 
Pell, James Renwick, Gen. William Hall, Horace Greeley, William 
B. Ogden, Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, Nathan C. Ely, Cyrus H. 
Loutrel, Thomas Rutter, and J. Trumbull Smith, who was 
elected in '89, and is still in office. 

Many modest men, who would have remained in obscurity, 
have made fortunes in having their skill and ingenuity brought 
prominently before the public by the great facilities afforded them 
by the American Institute. 

The Exhibitions are held under the direction of a Board of 
Managers, elected annually by the members. 

The articles on exhibition are classified under seven depart- 
ments, which are again divided into seven groups. The classifica- 
tions are as follows : 

1. Department of Fine Arts and Education. 

2. Depart7nent of the Dwelling. 

3. Department of Dress a?id Handicraft. 

4. Depart7nent of Chemistry and Mineralogy. 

5. Departmejit of Engi?ies and Machifiery. 

6. Depart77ient of l7iterco7n7nunicatio7i. 

7. DepartTnent of Agriculture and Horticulture. 

In connection with the Fairs, the American Institute has held 
eighteen Exhibitions of Live Stock from 1838 to 1859, the Exhibi- 
tions of 1857 and 1858 were confined to Fat Cattle. 

These Exhibitions were held for some years on the ground on 
which the Fifth Avenue Hotel now stands ; it was then out of town. 
On this ground stood a famed hostelry, known as Madison Cot 
tage, kept by Corporal Thompson ; this was the stopping place 
for the Broadway stages. 

The Cattle Shows were also held on Hamilton Square, and on 
Hamilton Park, in Third Avenue. 



A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE 9 

In addition to its valuable Scientific Library, there are three 
sections, viz. : 

ist. The Farmers' Club, under the direction of the Committee 
on Agriculture, which meets the first Tuesday of each month at 2 
o'clock, P. M., at its rooms Nos. iir-115 West Thirty-eighth 
Street. 

2d, The Polytechnic, under the direction of the Committee 
on Manufactures and Machinery, which discusses Scientific Sub- 
jects, the examination of New Inventions, etc. ; it meets at the 
same place on the third Thursday of each 'month, at 8 
o'clock, P. M. 

3d. The Photographic Section, under the direction of the 
Committee on Chemistry and Optics, which discusses all matters 
in relation to Photography and the action of light — this Section 
meets at the same place on the first Tuesday of each month, at 8 
o'clock, P. M. 

All these meetings are open to the public. 

The present number of members is about two thousand. 

One of the notable things that the Institute feels proud of, is 
the action it took in procuring the passage of the Act creating the 
Natural History of the State of New York. After two or three 
years of persistent petitioning, the law was passed. The publica- 
tion of these reports occupy twenty-two 4to volumes, and is a 
proud monument of the State. 

The Institute is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting 
of thirteen members, of which the President, two Vice-Presidents, 
and two members are retired and elected annually. 

The Institute is now holding its Sixtieth Annual Exhibition. 

Chas. Wager Hull is the General Superintendent, and John 
W. Chambers is the Secretary of the Board of Managers, a posi- 
tion he has filled for fifty-seven years. 



THE 

AMERICAN INSTITUTE 

OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

incorporated 1829. 

"for the purpose of encouraging and promoting domestic industry in this 

state and thb united states, in agriculture, commfcrce, 

manufactures and the arts," 

offices and library : exhibition buildings : 

111-115 WEST 38TH STREET. 2D AND 3D AVES., BET. 63D AND 64TH STS. 



New York, October lo, 1891. 

General Stewart L. Woodford, 

Dear Sir : 
A T a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Sixtieth Annual 
'^^^ Fair of the American Institute, held on the 6th inst,, the 
following resolution offered by Judge R. H. Shannon was unani- 
mously adopted : 

Resolved : " That the thanks of this Board be tendered to Gen- 
eral Stewart L. Woodford for the able, eloquent and instructive 
address delivered by him at the opening of the Sixtieth Anpual 
Fair on the 30th of September, and request him to furnish a copy 
of same for publication. " 

I take great pleasure in conveying the foregoing to you. 
Yours very respectfully, 

John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



New York, October 15, 1891. 

Mr. John W. Chambers, Secretary American Institute^ 

3d Avenue, near 63d St., City. 
My Dear Sir : 

Let me thank you for your favor of October loth. With this 
I return revised copy of my remarks at the opening of your 
Institute Fair. 

Cordially thanking your Board for the privilege of being with 

you on that evening, I am. 

Truly yours, 

Stewart L. Woodford. 



THE PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL 
EDUCATION 



Mr. Chairman; Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

TO speak against the hammer of the carpenter, the buzz of 
the engine, and the pleasant chatter of the young ladies 
and their numerous attendants, will be a difficult task, 
and so I shall be very brief. 
During the last few weeks I have felt constrained, under the 
necessities of a political canvass, to say some rather unkind things 
about Tammany Hall, and so it is exceedingly pleasant this night 
to bear this tribute to Tammany Hall: that in 1828, sixty-three 
years ago, the American Institute was organized by a few public- 
spirited citizens, in one of the upper rooms of Tammany Hall. 
And I am willing to admit, that for once in her history, Tammany 
Hall did a thoroughly good thing. (Applause.) The objects of 
the American Institute, as I understand them, are to encourage 
American inventions, to educate American mechanics in the 
mechanical arts, and, generally, to assist in all practical ways in 
the development of American resources and American possibilities. 
And frankly, my friends, I like the name of American Institute. 
(Applause.) I like it because it speaks in one word all the mean- 
ing of American progress and American effort. What this Insti- 
tute has done in the way of development, in invention, in minister- 
ing to mechanical education, can hardly be justly estimated and 
sufficiently honored. (Applause.) 

This was one of the first fairs ever established in this country. 
Now we have them in every town, we have them in every county, we 
have them in every state. But the American Institute Fair that 
was organized sixty years ago, in the city of New York, was logi- 
cally the seed corn of the great Columbian Exposition that is to 
be held in Chicago next year, and to the founders of this Institute 
should the credit and the honor this day be given. (Applause.) 



12 THE PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 

The educational work that has been done by this American In- 
stitute was early seen by one of the greatest of our American 
thinkers, and there was no work that was attempted in the City or 
State of New York, that so commended itself to the warm heart 
and large brain of that pioneer of American development, Horace 
Greeley, as did the work of the American Institute and the American 
Institute Fair. (Applause.) 

When your Institute was organized and the first of your fairs 
was held, American industrial or mechanical education was almost 
entirely confined within the several crafts, to the education that the 
master machanic could give to his apprentices and his men. To-day 
there are industrial schools with trained professors, with scientific 
education, established in every one of the great cities of the American 
Union. Education, higher education, has ceased to be scholastic 
and has become practical. In 1828, almost every man who went 
to Harvard, to Columbia, or to Yale, might talk Latin and Greek 
to you, but could not drive a nail or use a hammer without mash- 
ing his thumb. (Laughter.) To-day in the highest Universi- 
ties of the country we have engineering schools, mechanical 
schools and electrical schools. We have the great Massachusetts 
School of Technology at Boston ; we have the Stevens' Institute, 
across the river in Hoboken ; we have the great Sheffield School 
in Yale University ; we have the School of Mines in Columbia Col- 
lege; we have the Sibley College at Cornell University. To-day 
the teachers of the nation and the best trained intellect of the en- 
tire country go into the work-shop and teach men to use the tre- 
mendous material forces of nature in a scientific manner and with 
admirable and accurate results. (Applause.) 

Why gentlemen, do you realize what tremendous progress 
scientific education has made in the last fifty years ? To-day the 
line-man who takes care of the telegraph in your street, the man 
who in his shirt sleeves stands by yonder dynamo and regulates 
the forces that light this great Exposition, knows more about 
electricity than Benjamin Franklin did, than Farraday did, than 
all the Professors in all the Universities of the United States did 
when this Institution was organized in 1828. (Applause.) The 
man who stands beside the steam engine, the man who controls 
those tremendous forces of physics and of steam, the very fireman 
knows more about steam than Robert Fulton did. Every 
one of us has to-day as the alphabet, the simple letters in 



THE PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IJ 

the alphabet of acquisition, more of scientific development 
than the college Professors and the master Scientists had 
fifty years ago. Now whereto does this all tend ? Year by 
year we are making league-long strides, year by year we are 
taking within our grasp these tremendous forces. Whereto 
are we going ? The workingmen of the world to-day stand 
on the very top of the scientific acquisition of all the ages 
that are gone. To what heights are labor and science yet to 
climb ? 

This land of ours (and I love to speak of it as you speak of 
this Institute,) this American land of ours with steam plow, with 
steam sower, with steam reaper, with steam binder, with railroads 
to carry grain to market, with great elevators to store that grain, 
with steam-ships of ten thousand tons to bear it across the sea, 
this American land of ours is furnishing wheat and corn for the 
civilized world, and wherever famine stalks with gaunt figure and 
with grimy visage, there American production is ministering to the 
world's wants. (Applause.) 

To-day (and I love that name American), to-day the Ameri- 
can mine is furnishing silver and gold and copper, and despite of 
the pessimists, before the twelve months have rolled by, we will 
be furnishing American tin (applause), that we may supply the 
needs, the business, the industry, the development of the world. 
(Applause.) 

Now, ladies and gentlemen. No, I will take those words 
back. Women and men. I like these simple words better, for if 
anyone is a true, honest woman, if anyone is a true, honest man, 
such an one is highest in the ranks of humanity (applause), this 
ripple of my poor voice against the hammer and the moving throng 
is an unequal struggle, and I must close. The time has come for 
this people of ours to step to the front and to assert modestly and 
yet with dignity our American claim for an American policy. 
(Applause.) Let us develop what our fathers began, when they 
sowed the seed corn of the American Institute. Thus shall we 
develop this continent; thus shall we keep the common schools; 
thus shall we keep our free worship ; thus shall we keep our free 
ballot; thus shall we keep our free manhood, and thus shall we 
show to the nations of the world that the American freeman, the 
American workman, the American citizen, can and will step to a 
height of grandeur and dignity and power, such as the citizens of 



14 THE PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 

old Rome never saw in the palmiest days of Roman story. (Ap- 
plause.) 

Twelve months will soon roll round, and on the anniversary 
of the discovery of America by Columbus, the great exhibition 
will open at Chicago. From every city, from every State, from 
every Territory of our land, and from every island and from every 
continent of the world, the productions of the farmer, the produc- 
tions of the artisan, the productions of the scholar, the productions 
of the laborer, will be brought into competition, and there may 
the best thought and the best man win. (Applause.) But you 
will be disappointed if under the influence of our free institutions 
and trained in such schools as the American Institute, our people 
shall not stand in the very fore-front of the achievement of the 
world. Good-night. (Applause.) 



THE PROGRESS OF INDUS 
TRIAL EDUCATION : : : 

AN ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF THE CITY Of NEW YORK ON 

WEDNESDAY EVENING. SEPTEMBER 3O, 189I, AT THE OPENING 

OF THE SIXTIETH EXHIBITION, AT THE EXHIBITION 

BUILDING, ON THIRD AVENUE, BETWEEN 

63RD AND 64TH STREETS 



BY 



GENERAL STEWART L. WOODFORD 



^ 



PRINTED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
BOARD OF MANAGERS 



NEW YORK 

I89I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

lililifllillliillllliii 

030 010 019 3 



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